Chapter 8. Surprises

At 6pm Connor was in front of my house, he looks more handsome than ever. He was wearing a pair of black jeans, black shoes and a black T-shirt over which he wore a dark blue jacket. His almost black hair was cut short and his freshly shaved face was in perfect harmony with his wide smile. In his right hand he held a beautiful white rose. I wish I could have seen him like that long before everything went dark in my life. I have walked until I came face to face with him and he offered me the rose.

"Happy birthday baby girl!"

I took the rose and smelled it, its aroma invaded my senses, I closed my eyes inhaling and for a few seconds I felt my lips stretched into a smile that was no longer familiar to me.

,,Thanks!" I answered opening my eyes.

He opened the car door for me like a gentleman.

"Now can you tell me where we're going?"

I asked after he got behind the steering wheel .

"A little patience, you'll see soon."

The road was quite short. Connor parked the car in front of the cafe where we used to go out with our colleagues. From outside, it looked quite crowded like any other Saturday night. We went in and Connor directed me to our table by the window.

In exchange for our usual table there were two tables together and almost all the seats were occupied.

"Surprise" everyone shouted at once, standing up applauding our coming. Brad and Sandra had wide smiles on their faces.

Brad left the group and hugged me.

"Happy birthday my baby sister"

I was overwhelmed . No one had ever done that for me before.

"Brad how?"

"Oh no, it wasn't my idea, Connor was the smart guy here, I just agreed and helped organizing with him and Sandra."

I looked at Connor, who had a wide smile and a gleam in his eyes foreign to me. I returned his smile and nodded in gratitude. He motioned for me to sit at the head of the table, I went to the indicated place and before I sat down I looked at everyone present, they were the my closest classmates and friends.

"Thank you all for the pleasant surprise, I'm overwhelmed."

Before I sat down, a roar of applause and whistles exploded throughout the cafe and suddenly all the lights went off and everyone started singing Happy birthday and one of the cafe employees came carrying a cake with candles on it and SAMANTHA 18 was wrote on it.

I was happy, I was smiling so hard that my cheeks hurt.

Before I blew out the candles, Connor whispered to me.

,,Make a wish."

I closed my eyes and thought very well what I want, "To leave everything behind and find my happiness" I thought before blowing all the candles in one breath. Applause and whistles erupted again. I never considered myself popular and I never thought that so many people knew me until tonight. It was really my evening, everything seemed like a dream and I didn't want to wake up.

But I woke up when Kevin and Amy entered the cafe. My smile disappeared instantly. I felt Connor's hand over my hand. I begged them not to come to us but my prayer was not heard, they came directly to our table. Brad greeted them, Kevin was the first to speak after shaking friendly his hand .

"I heard you came to town." He told my brother.

"I arrived late last night, it's my sister's birthday today."

,,Seriously ". He turned his attention to me and I could see the disgust in his eyes.

"Happy birthday!" He said in the same tone he had in our last conversation. A tone that still haunted me.

"Happy birthday Samantha!" Amy told me in a kitten's voice. Despite her honeyed voice, she had a mischievous grin, clinging like a liana to Kevin's arm. Only then did it catch my eye. There was something strange about her so I looked more closely. Light brown hair with golden strands, rosy lips and God, the light blue dress identical to the dress I had worn the night the nightmare of my life began.

I had a chest pain and it was hard to breathe. Connor shook my hand enough to distract me, I looked back at him and saw the shock in his eyes.

"You want to sit at the table with us." I heard my brother

"Thank you but we're just passing through. Amy suddenly had a craving for Latte macchiato and we came to get it."

Did she suddenly had a craving? I looked at her abdomen and saw her hand covering protective her slightly swollen belly.

,, Sam? Do you want to go out for a while? I heard Connor whisper in my ear. I nodded because I couldn't make a sound.

Connor suddenly got up with me and we didn't stop until we were far enough away from the cafe.

I was desperately trying to take a deep breath but my chest pain wouldn't allow me to breathe. I had a new panic attack.

"Sam, look at me." Connor was holding his hands to my face, trying to make me look at him, and I looked. Tears streamed down my cheeks and I felt like I was suffocating.

"Look at me, Sam, breathe slowly." He shows me how to breathe and with my eyes in his eyes I try to breathe with him.

After a few minutes I felt like I could breathe again and slowly, slowly I started to calm down.

Connor hugged me and hold me close to his chest he kept repeating.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. This was not supposed to happen. "

,,It's not your fault." I managed to whisper.

,, Sam! I'm sorry that he still causes you pain. "

I was trying to understand what Connor meant. Did he think my condition was because of Kevin?

I slowly pulled away from the hug and looked up looking into his eyes.

"Do you think it's because of Kevin?" Connor! I don't care about Kevin. Not anymore."

"I thought you still had feelings for him."

"If anger counts, then yes I still have feelings for him."

"Then why did you had that reaction in there?"

Well done Samantha, good job, now explain something you can't talk about. I had to quickly find a plausible excuse. Samantha think, quickly. I'm pretty good at not talking about but I can't lie so all I can say is:

"There are things I can't talk about. Connor, you are a good friend of mine, but I… ”

I couldn't look at him anymore so I turned my gaze to the cafe.

"I think we should go back inside, it's not polite to abandon our guests." I managed to say trying to avoid more explanations.

I heard him sigh.

"Ok baby girl, it`s up to you, if you think you can go back there, then …"

He held out his hand, which I first looked at, and only after a few seconds did I put my hand on his hand and looked at him again, trying a smile that I was sure didn't seem very convincing.